Personal Definition of Applied linguistics

  Autobiography 2        My definition of applied linguistics has changed and is deeper than learning language and I will use it in real life.  Language is the subject matter of applied linguistics and my earlier belief was that, one only needed to improve their competence and performance in a language, and now I want to utilize more systematic approaches to understand how people use languages. There is no consensus on the definition of applied linguistics because the field is fragmented and there are epistemological differences on what the field entails. However, applied linguistics is concerned with how people learn language and use it to solve problem or achieve something (Schmitt, 2013, p.1).  In applied linguistics, the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is one of the fields that interest me, and I will still stick with the same goal, as I came to applied linguistics department to complete my degree and understand the application of theory and research in second language development. I come from an environment with more than one language, primarily speaking Arabic, but also being proficient in English. I hope to teach English to foreign language speakers, and believe I am well suited because of my personal and learning experiences.  Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field, and understanding how people acquire language knowledge will help me to be a better language and linguistics teacher.   I consider myself as an applied linguist as I am interested in research on how people learn languages and how they use them in real life events. Before the course I mostly thought about the standard forms of the languages, but would also like to learn about the influence of dialectal forms on language development. Language is tied to people’s identity, and I would like to explore whether attitudes to languages change when people learn new languages.  My learning experience in applied linguistic has been valuable, as I understand the importance of cross-language perspectives and the need to optimize learning outcomes regardless of one’s L1. Meeting with the facu...